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Please send one copy of vinyl (preferred), CD, or cassette releases to MRR, PO Box 3852, Oakland, CA 94609, USA.
Maximum Rocknroll wants to review everything that comes out in the world of underground punk rock, hardcore, garage, post-punk, thrash, etc. No major labels or labels exclusively distributed by major-owned distributors, no reviews of test pressings or promo CDs without final artwork. We reserve the right to reject releases on the basis of content. Music without vocals or drums will not be considered. All music submitted for review must have been released (or reissued) within the last two years. Please include contact information and let us know where your band is from!
Rapid-fire ’77-ish experimental synth punk Á la SCREAMERS or early TUXEDOMOON. There’s a definite edge to both the music and lyrics, and although the songs are long and repetitious, there’s a mania that sustains interest. Dark, but not overwhelmingly depressing.
Mykel Board loves this band.
PINK FLOYD-ish psych from the Milwaukee monsters—says there’s three songs on the label, but really it’s just one plus some noise. Comes inside the latest issue of Bucketful of Brains.
Hard, medium-tempo thrash seems to be PARTY OWLS’ forte, though I was far more enamored of their goofy/retarded lyrics. Of the five tracks here, “Competition Skank” kicks up the requisite energy to be a winner; the other songs just sit there. Still, an above-average, entertaining release.
Is this the “fusion” music of punk? OTTO’S CHEMICAL LOUNGE pounds out these eight songs, and depending on whether or not you view this as a plus or minus, incorporate funk, jazz, rock, etc. into the tunes. Personally, I find it a bit annoying, especially on the covers of the GROOVIES’ “Slow Death” and the classic rocker “Shakin’ All Over.” I’ll take the originals, straight up, thank you.
The OUTLETS are aiming for FLAMIN’ GROOVIES territory on this one, but it didn’t really hit it on the nose. Instead of the songs charging along with melodic leads and galloping rhythms, it gets mixed up in its own tweeness and gets nowhere fast. Check out their comp tracks first.
At times metallish thrash, at times straight-ahead. Young and undeveloped as far as individual sound goes, this is a fairly generic Mystic-type release, giving a new band a starting chance to get some attention and develop. OK.
One of the East Coast’s new wave of neo-mod groups. I personally like raucous mod blasting with a flailing guitar, but these are precisely the qualities that NEW BREED lacks. They spend too much time on melodies and harmonic vocals, and ignore the all-important crunching sound. Aspiring mods should spend less time listening to the late JAM and more time listening to the early WHO and the debut singles by the JOLT, PURPLE HEARTS, and CHORDS.
Even though this is ancient material from a band long gone, it is representative of one of Boston’s finest outfits at its time. Holding the distinct Boston characteristics heard in GANG GREEN, SSD, DYS, and more, NEGATIVE FX packed strong musical combustion with hoarse vocal deliveries. Rapid, powerful, and totally enjoyable, NFX is a classic Boston band but this should have come out at its time before all the duplications arose.
Hot shit! You thought their past records were great, well here’s 19 tracks that are rockin’, thrashin’, imaginative, and catchy. The slower songs have a catchy early ’77 pop-punk sound, and the thrash just rips. A good mix that shows that NOTA are expanding their boundaries and coming of age as a style to US hardcore.
A 100% improvement over their recent 12″, this rocks out. Lotsa fuzz, cool tunes, and even the organ isn’t had. Only beef I have with all these neo-’60s bands is the lyrics—dumb boy/girl stuff. Otherwise, this is boss.
Yes, it’s really the DEBBIE BOONE schlock classic, but here adopted to a neo-rock format—and with no small success. The flip, however, has a driving guitar sound and stands on its own as solid alternative rock. (They also have a recommendable cassette, Streets of Poison, available; good material and excellent sound quality.) Good band.
Unlikely name for a great thrash band. Actually they’re more than a thrash band, combining funk, rap, and lots of odds and ends, but all delivered with power, gusto, and a great gruff singer. Excellent.
LDS straddles the fence between two genres: portentous horror rock and mid- to fast-tempo thrash. Certainly a tight outfit, this band doesn’t seem to have that sense for unique HC compositions—probably because they don’t really exploit the possibilities of either genre. Uneventful.
There’s a clutch of manic, ultra-fast thrash on this EP—some of it well up to DRI speed and even faster. Admittedly, the recording could be hotter and much of the guitar wanking could have been excised, but this record contains enough unspoiled moments to make it well worthwhile. Good basic release.
Neo-’60s pop with a dash of psych. Reminds me a bit of the HOLLIES, with good vocals and harmonics, but not too much edge.
This hand includes late ’60s pop-psych and rock influences, as did many fellow Midwestern bands of that era itself. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. On the single, it doesn’t really click (too poppish), but on the free promotion tape you can write away for, the garage side does come out much stronger. Different (now).
Abrasive, driving post-punk. Lots of guitar, sparse but full production, rhythms, and depressed lyrics. Is there something “D.C.” about this still? Perhaps, because despite the “down” aspects mentioned above, there is still an upbeatness to it all. Can’t put my finger on it—not sure I want to.
G.I. is flooding the market with quality DCHC. “Plain to See” is awesome, and though these live tracks vary a bit in sound quality, most are rippin’. Only minor metally digressions, as the pure punk sound predominates and dominates.
A very well-produced and appropriately gloomy JOY DIVISION-influenced band. Don’t know if this is your cup of arsenic, but if you’re into such moods, then you’ll be thrilled to death to pick this up.
This band explores the same territory as England’s SCREAMING DEAD—this is atmospheric horror rock, albeit with much less of a rock energy. Of the five songs here, only “Pink Little Playhouse” combines catchy post-punk arrangements with GARGOYLE SOX’s trademark twisted lyrics. A novel release.
The new refined GANG GREEN has a lot more metallic influences in this approach. A new band with Chris’ vocals sounding different, is this still GANG GREEN?? Maybe GANG GREEN meets AC/DC, but no longer is the maniac speed evident. Good guitar work, but craving the old band. You decide.
Garage thrash meets industrial noise. Primitive sounds whacked out with rock’n’roll gusto, includes both studio and live recordings. Some songs are actually catchy, and I got to (I think) feel complimented by the tune “Reagan Dropped the Bomb (on Tim Y).” Crude, rude, and rockin’.
This 12″ single is reported to be going around at a pretty steep price, so people who don’t consider themselves fans may want to think twice. But it does have some pretty cool tracks recorded live: the LOU REED cover is a little bit better because it doesn’t seem to ramble as much. Nice psychobilly artwork by R.K. Sloan.
This band is walking the tightrope of trying to delve more and more into rock and post-punk while maintaining the punk power of their earlier years. Overall, they manage to pull it off here, with the one or two less exciting tunes made up for by a tasteful cover of early JOY DIVISION’s “No Love Lost.”
This one takes their last record one step further, because the band is harder and tighter than before. The title of this EP is ironic because the band does seem to have the same hard-charging structures as STIFF LITTLE FINGERS. Let’s see what they can do with an album, now.
Unusual hardcore, where thrash meets industrial noise with sometimes inspired moments. There’s straight thrash too, as well as FLIPPER-esqe music. All in all, a band to reckon with, despite their garagy live recording. Very intelligent lyrics, too showing that thrash can indeed be creative and manic today. Hey, they even incorporate surf music into it.
Side one features a couple of slower punk tunes with gnarly vocals and somewhat metalish overtones. Side two is an unbearably long “freak out” Á la IRON BUTTERFLY or some godawful downbeat hand.
This band can be lumped somewhat into the same style as the WILD SEEDS, ZEITGEIST, NOT FOR SALE, and the TRUE BELIEVERS. In reality, this band is just a real cool guitar band with an excellent sense of melody. Personally, I wouldn’t mind at all if they turned their raunch guitars up a little, but with their songwriting quality, it isn’t that necessary.
The second tape from these folks contains five studio tracks and some live material, and is no letdown from the high quality inventiveness of their premier outing. Punk with guts but incorporating weird changes that most post-punk bands utilize at the expense of rawness and exuberance—these guys keep it all.
Despite the clichéd HC name, this transplant from Chicago has turned out quite a decent demo. Fine studio recording brings their thrash to life. It rips.
Not only do you get the DESCENDENTS’ classic Fat EP on this one, but also the two songs from their rare Ride the Wild 45 and an additional compilation track. This is hard-edged SoCal funnypunk at its best, and a welcome return to vinyl. May be the band’s best record.
The layoff and new drummer has not daunted DRI a bit. They’re back as powerful as ever, with 25 songs as wickedly sharp as ever. There are a couple of slower metalish tunes (DRI are big with headbangers), but most are short sharp shocks, and include a couple of reworkings of tunes off their debut release.
How about a grungy country rock tune that sounds like an outtake of STIV BATORS singing with the DREAM SYNDICATE?
When last we reviewed CHILD SUPPORT, we weren’t sure what direction they’d head musically. I’m still not sure; this is a pretty mixed bag of poppish-punk, new wave, experimentation, pop-rock, etc. Lyrics are above par in theme and intelligence, but this record will probably only appeal to the more open-minded or dance-oriented (not one and the same) folks.
Those Stepe brothers will do anything to keep their names in print, even going to the outrageous length of putting a tape out. Decent garage quality sound here, and better-than-decent stop-and-go thrash. Funny “thanks to” and “a big fuck-off-and-die to…” on the enclosure.
More intense thrash from CAPITOL PUNISHMENT. They’ve been a unit for a long time, and it shows in the ultra-tight instrumental attack displayed here. The vocals are exceptionally gruff, lyrics are well-taken, and there are even glimpses of quasi-psychedelic elements (in “Elephant Man’) and Euro-thrash (the guitar riff in “Broken Home”). Check it out.
CANCEROUS GROWTH do a respectable, but by no means brilliant job with the mid- to fast-tempo thrash formula, replete with rebellious lyrics and gruff vocals. This kind of thing has been done before, but I really enjoyed their high-velocity numbers. Basically OK.
Eclectic really is an understatement; these guys go everything from ska to dirge to VENTURES-inspired instrumentals. There’s even a tongue-in-cheek hippie version of BLACK FLAG’s “Wasted.” This one’s not going to be easy to figure out, but it might just challenge you a little.
The BURNT recorded this album on an 8-track machine in a basement somewhere, and the songs explore a variable-speed thrash style with growling vocals. It’s a good piece of work, too; most of the songs are concise, to-the-point thrashers, and there’s at least one mini-classic (“Garbage Can”).
The title track of this four-song release has a loose, angry, experimental energy that reminds me of Wednesday nights at the Mab in ’78. Synth and drums predominate on this one, but if you like diverse, almost-experimental pop, you might find this sporadically interesting. They also have a strange cassette out.
It’d be simplistic to compare this combo to the HÜSKERS, but suffice to say that they both play extremely fast pop music. At that point the comparison ends, as BRAILLE PARTY play very cleanly, though they don’t sacrifice a lot of power for doing so…just a lot of raunch.
The A-side original is a great organ/fuzz ’60s punk cut with snarling vocals and back-ups. The flip is a superior cover of an old RICHARD & THE YOUNG LIONS’ classic. Hot.
This one’s growing on me. Neat garage punk and thrash showing lots of imagination and diversity. There’s weirdness interspersed between tracks (must be a Midwestern tradition), in the tracks, and in the lyrics. Singer Eric Fund Fournier actually sounds like LOVE’s Arthur Lee on “Young and Restless.” Cool.
Lately, more bands have been adopting the nasty ’60s punk style (as opposed to the wimpy psych pop or folk approaches), and BAD TRIP are among them. Here the quality is a bit uneven, ranging as it does from a way hot original (“Never Had It Better”) to a fairly lame version of the REMAINS’ “Don’t Look Back,” but they definitely have potential.
Decent older styles of punk (’77, GUN CLUB, R’n’B), but often ruined by “rock” excesses of guitar solos and plodding metal structures.
This is spare pop with a country tinge, with an emphasis on the melodic vocals. A little wimpy.
Fairly powerful, pounding punk somewhat reminiscent of the DK’s, though that only creeps in occasionally in vocal quality and riffs. Just a few songs here, but they show much promise.
GG will never change. Rockin’ early punk-style garage numbers and every combination of obscenity and sexual depravity. We decided a woman should review GG to see if he really is offensive, and I think that if you are offended with such absurdities as “I Wanna Fuck Myself” (“cause I’m the best”) or “Needle Up My Cock” or “Kill the Children, Save the Food” and don’t see the obvious ridiculous satire, you’re just as sexually repressed as GG. If you like to hear strings of cuss words for 45 minutes, find this tape.
It took me a little time to actually follow this, but this band challenges themselves as much as their audience as they couple time signatures yet perfectly catchy, with weird percussion like bottles, bongos, scraping metal, etc. Reported to be the MINUTEMEN’s favorite new band.
